Chapter 3

Not long after we married, Leona got pregnant.

By the time her due date came around, my career was just taking off. I was buried in work every single day, run ragged, and there was no way I could get free.

So I steeled myself and called my mother, hoping she might come help look after Leona during her recovery after the birth.

My mother was silent for two seconds. Then all she said was:

"My back's bad. I can't do that kind of nursing. You two figure it out yourselves."

And with that, she hung up.

I was mortified. For a while I didn't even know how to face Leona.

But when Leona found out, she wasn't angry, wasn't upset. She just comforted me gently:

"Your mom isn't well. Let her rest."

"I can manage on my own."

She said she could manage, but on the day of the birth she hemorrhaged badly and nearly died.

After the baby came, the doctor warned her she absolutely had to rest properly, recover properly, and not overexert herself under any circumstances.

In the end there was no other choice. My mother-in-law quit her job on purpose and came to care for Leona through her recovery.

Less than two months later, my cousin's wife turned up pregnant too.

The moment my parents heard, they went straight to my cousin's place that same day and threw themselves into caring for his whole family.

That caretaking lasted a full fifteen years.

It wasn't until their grandnephew started junior high and went off to boarding school, no longer needing anyone to look after him, that my parents finally remembered I existed.

But what they had in mind wasn't how much they owed me.

It was how much they could get out of me.

Even after everything they'd done, when they proposed coming to live out their old age with us, Leona agreed without a moment's hesitation.

Because she didn't want to put me in a hard spot.

So she swallowed every grievance, got up early to clean the room for my parents, bought groceries, cooked, and gave them the most genuine hospitality and respect.

And what she got in return was a slap from my father and a stream of furious cursing.

The scenes of those years were vivid in my mind.

Once, I ached for my parents' love.

So I taught myself to be good, taught myself to give way.

But now, all I want is to protect the people who actually treat me like family.

Facing my parents' accusations, I said without a flicker of expression:

"You've already spent over ten years taking care of my cousin's family. So from now on, you can spend your old age with him."

"To you, Leona and I are outsiders anyway. There's really no way we can look after you."

My father's eyes bulged. He jabbed a finger at me and roared:

"You heartless, ungrateful son!"

"We've only just gotten here and you can't wait to shove us out the door?"

I let out a cold laugh and said flatly:

"I'm not shoving you out."

"I'm doing you a favor."

"Amos is the only one who matters to you anyway. Now I'm reuniting your whole family. Isn't that a good thing?"

My father pointed at me and raised his voice:

"Elijah, Amos is a child we raised with our own hands. So we helped him. What's wrong with that?"

"You're a grown man. Do you have to nickel-and-dime over something this small?"

My mother looked at me too, laying it on thick:

"Exactly. Amos is Amos and you're you. You're both our sons. How could we possibly claim him and disown you?"

"We came all this way this time just to spend time together, to enjoy our later years as a family. Isn't that all?"

Looking at that hypocritical face of my mother's, I found it absurd:

"Spend time together?"

"Whose idea of spending time together is walking in the door and slapping their own daughter-in-law?"

"Mom, don't think I don't know. You spent over ten years raising Amos's kid, and now you're too worn out to keep going. You don't want to be a burden on Amos, so you came to my place hoping Leona and I would wait on you in your old age."

My mother's face froze. She said nothing.

My father glared at me, beside himself, and shot back as if he had every right:

"So what if that's how it is?"

"Elijah, you're our own flesh and blood. Raising a son to care for you in old age, isn't that the natural order of things?"

"You keep score this carefully with your own parents. Did a dog eat your conscience?"

Truly laughable.

When I needed them, they gave every scrap of their love, their money, their energy to Amos, lifting him up so he never wanted for food or clothing, smoothing every road ahead of him.

Now that they're old, now that they're sick, they suddenly remember I'm their son.

And come demanding I do my filial duty and support them in their old age.

Where in the world do people get to have it that easy?

I couldn't be bothered to argue with them. I just turned around and carried all their luggage to the door:

"Raising a son for your old age, that's fine. But the one you've been raising all these years isn't me."

"Go find whoever it was who benefited from you."

Seeing me haul their bags out and turn them away, my father shook all over with rage:

"Elijah, you ungrateful wretch!"

"Aren't you afraid I'll tell everyone about this, and have every relative and friend curse you for being an unfilial son? So you'll never be able to hold your head up back home again?"